American Detective with Lt. Joe Kenda is in South Beach, Miami, Florida, to investigate the strange death of Amy Hoyos, who was murdered by her so-called friend James Glass, who then took his own life by jumping out off the 14th story of a high rise building.
The police initially believed they were dealing with a suicide before concluding they had a double homicide on their hands. However, they once again changed tact when the evidence suggested Glass was a murderer.
On October 9, 2004, the police were suddenly inundated with calls to 911 stating that a suicide victim had jumped to their death from a high-rise building in broad daylight. On arrival, the police found the remains of 24-year-old James Glass sprawled on the sidewalk.
But the cops were shocked to discover that Glass had stab wounds on his wrists and chest, which looked like defensive wounds. They speculated that Glass had actually been attacked and had tried to fight off his murderer.
There was a further shock for the police when they examined Glass’s apartment 14 stories up; they discovered the naked body of 27-year-old Amy Hoyos in the bathtub. She had two stab wounds in her chest and had received a blunt force trauma to the head.
The apartment was a bloody ransacked mess, with blood-stained scissors and a severed iron’s electrical cord lying nearby. The cops now believed they were looking at a double homicide.
Investigators learned that Hoyos and Glass had attended a nightclub together the previous evening, but they couldn’t find anybody who might have been the killer or killers.
Watch the Latest on our YouTube ChannelPolice begin to suspect James Glass is the killer
The cops feared they’d hit a brick wall until Glass’s father told them about a voice message his son had left him on the morning of his death. He told the police that his depressed-sounding son had said: “You know Dad, you always fix my problems, you always clean up my mess, but this is a mess that even you can’t clean up.”
The cops began to rethink their approach to the case and thought, was James actually the killer? Had he had feelings for Amy that weren’t returned?
An autopsy on Glass’s remains added weight to the investigators’ theory. The stab wounds to his chest and wrist appeared to be shallow; the cops concluded that they were self-inflicted and that Glass had been the killer all along.
The investigators concluded that Glass had romantic feelings for Amy, but when she rebuffed his advances, he snapped and murdered her. They suspect that he tried to choke her with the iron’s electrical cord before hitting her on the head with it.
The cops think Glass then tried to slit his wrists and stab himself before deciding to kill himself by jumping off the balcony.
More from Investigation Discovery
Follow the links to read about more murders profiled on ID.
Jeffrey Trevino’s marriage had run into difficulties, so he decided to murder his wife, Kira Steger, and dump her remains in the icy waters of the Mississippi River near St. Paul, Minnesota.
Investigators began to get suspicious when the women in Steven Catlin’s life began mysteriously dying. They learned that he’d poisoned two of his wives and his mother and is suspected of killing his father.
American Detective with Lt. Joe Kenda airs at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.